Kenyan sprinter Odhiambo provisionally suspended for alleged anti-doping rules violation

Two sprinters were provisionally suspended for doping on Saturday, hours ahead of their scheduled races at the Olympic Stadium.

The International Testing Agency asserts an apparent anti-doping rules violation against Kenyan Mark Odhiambo.

The ITA has informed that a sample collected from the athlete has returned an adverse analytical finding for the anabolic steroids Mestasterone and Metabolites.

It was during an out-of-competition control on July 28th that the sample was collected with results reported by the WADA-accredited laboratory earlier today. Odhiambo was expected to compete in the men’s 100m first round heats at Tokyo Olympic Stadium.

The 28-year-old sprinter from Nairobi was informed of the findings and has been provisionally suspended until a resolution meets the World Anti-Doping Code and the IOC’s anti-doping rules.

Odhiambo is challenging the provisional suspension and the case has been referred to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Athletes have the right to request analysis of a B-Sample.

Earlier on Saturday, the Athletics Integrity Unit provisionally suspended Blessing Okagbare of Nigeria after she tested positive for human growth hormone in an out-of-competition test on July 19, four days before the Olympics opened.

The AIU said it only received the results of the test late Friday, after Okagbare had already run in the 100m heats during the opening day of the athletics competition. She had won her heat in a time of 11.05 seconds.

The AIU had revealed on Wednesday that 10 Nigerians were among 20 unnamed athletes not eligible to compete at Tokyo 2020 because they hadn’t met minimum testing requirements.

Okagbare, 32, won a silver medal in the long jump at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and at the 2013 world championships.

Odhiambo was to make his first Olympic appearance in Tokyo.

He competed at the London 2017 world championships in both the 100m and 200m events, but failed to advance past the first rounds.

His performance improved at the recent 2021 World Relays in Poland where his team finished second in the 4x200m relay posting a time of 1:24.26.